Ford unveil multi lingual car that calls the emergency services

Ford Motor Company Executive Chairman Bill Ford introduced the all new B-MAX at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and announced significant new technologies for Europe to be debuted on the B-MAX; these will make it one of the continent’s most technologically advanced small cars.

“Revealing the B-MAX at Mobile World Congress underlines how important technology is to customers and to Ford,” said Stephen Odell, chairman and CEO, Ford of Europe. “B-MAX will raise the bar for small vehicles in Europe, combining technology and premium engineering into a compact frame.”

The inclusion of an internal SIM card in the car allows the car to know the traffic status thanks to data transmitted over the mobile network – or to call the emergency services, in the local language in the cash of an accident.

“In the event of an accident, that feature will actually place an automated call to the emergency services, but it will do it in the local language,” said Ford technology chief Paul Mascarenas.
“So for example if you’re a French driver, you’re driving in Spain and you unfortunately get in an accident, the system will place a call to the emergency services in the Spanish language and give the location of the vehicle and call help for you.”

Car ownership numbers are rising exponentially, and are expected to go from one billion today to four billion by 2050, said Ford in a speech to the Congress on Monday. This creates the prospect of a hopelessly jammed infrastructure – and the potential for global gridlock.

“If we do nothing, we face the prospect of ‘global gridlock’, a never-ending traffic jam that wastes time, energy and resources and even compromises the flow of commerce and healthcare,” warned Bill Ford.